Mobile Marketing: Small Businesses Slow to Adapt

By looking at some recent data, you can see that small businesses are increasing the money they spend on their websites. Yet it seems like many of them aren’t investing enough of that money in the right places. Specifically, quite a few marketers seem to overlook one critical area, at least when it comes to making it a financial priority.

eMarketer recently compiled data related to what small businesses are spending and how they are using that money. While 40 percent of small businesses plan to increase the amount they spend on building or improving their websites this year, most don’t intend to focus on making sure those sites function well on smartphones and other mobile devices.

Surprisingly, the data showed that the vast majority of small businesses don’t offer a mobile version of their website. The fact that so many still aren’t optimizing their websites for mobile is somewhat shocking, given that 30 to 40 percent of all searches are now done via mobile, a figure that will surely only continue to rise.

For any business, each customer (or potential customer) is important, but this is especially true for small businesses, for whom every lead could signify a valuable source of revenue. They can’t afford to lose a single would-be customer, and yet a site that isn’t mobile-friendly makes it very likely the person will become frustrated, give up and look elsewhere for what they need.

With responsive web design becoming a hot trend all of a sudden, it’s obvious that some companies are rushing to ensure their sites are friendly to mobile users. But small businesses are lagging behind in this area, likely because they are hesitant to embark on what they fear will be an expensive and challenging, time-consuming process.

While it’s understandable that smaller businesses may be unable or unwilling to find room in their already limited budgets to devote to a new web design strategy, we are quickly reaching a point where this will no longer be optional. Businesses of any size who want to experience growth and success will have to embrace the mobile user and create an online experience that is efficient for them.

The good news is, this isn’t something that must be done instantly all at once. By analyzing your website and studying your analytics to find out which pages are most frequently accessed by mobile visitors, you can see where you need to focus your efforts first. You can then gradually optimize additional sections of your site as your budget and resources allow.